Growing Pains of a Maths Genius, BBC 3 Tonight

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www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15482101
This looks interesting, about a teenage boy with Asperger's. My DS2 has Aspergers but is definitely not a maths genius - I'm hoping it will give us an interesting insight into the life of ASD adolescents though.

Some of you seem to have been watchng a different documentary!

Cameron is not hothoused or pushed in the slightest. Maths is his passion in life and were it football noone would raise a problem. We could stop him doing the maths but surely that is cruel- would any of you take away you childs hobby from them? I dont think you can assume that by taking the maths away from him he would suddenly not become stressed....stress anxiety and frustration are part of the aspergers condition and it if wasnt maths it would be aomething else.
As far as social skills go you can see from the programme that he is in a specialist communications unit, has friends in school, does karate and enjoyed a lovely birthday party. What else do you think we could do?

We made the program to show people that a child can enjoy and be good at something without it having to be hothousing.

Hi Rod I kind of agree with you that taking the maths away would just lead to another thing to get stressed about.

However I also got a feeling from the programme that Cameron had been allowed to let his high expectations of himself become the thing that stressed him the most.

My Dd3 who is very able and has ASD has massivly high expectations of herself and is a perfectionist. She gets stressed becasue of this and I saw some of this in Cameron.

I would never dream of telling you how to parent your child but I worry about how our children will cope when they come up against something they really can't do when they haven't the skills to moderate their own expectations.

By the way I thought the school you found was fantastic and hope that I can find a secondary with staff as caring as that when my Dd is ready to move on.

Oh and thankyou for making the film it was fantastic to see someone else living with AS.

I completely agree- maths is clearly his passion and academic strength can be very protective for children with aspergers. I remember listening to a lecture from Temple Grandin where she says ' We spend too much time pummelling away on the deficits and not recognising the strengths in our children'

Although it was hard to watch him crying I think you are clearly doing all you can to support Cameron with his dreams.

Loved the programme - He's a sweetheart!

Thankyou for posting and for making the documentary, Rod.

I certainly didn't see anything looking like hothousing. One thing I've learnt with DS1 is that it's pretty much impossible for us to impose our will upon him. He will do what he will do and we have to find ways of making him realise that he needs to do something a certain way because it's the best course of action. Not always easy, especially in an almost 8 year old as impulsive as he is intelligent and stubborn enough to frustrate anyone!